


Peaceful

by SociallyAwkwardFox (Maze_Runner_Fae)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Bleeding, Bruising, Explosions, Fighting, Injury, M/M, cradling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-23
Updated: 2017-01-23
Packaged: 2018-09-19 10:11:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9435608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maze_Runner_Fae/pseuds/SociallyAwkwardFox
Summary: During a battle, Lance ends up alone on an enemy ship. When he gets the chance to end things, he takes it.-----Technically this has an open ending, but major character death is heavily implied.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t know why I like to see my favorite characters suffer. I’m sorry! I’m going to work on a prompt fill now...

“Can anybody see a way to take this ship out?” Pidge’s strained voice crackled over the comms and momentarily distracted Lance from the ships surrounding him. “I can’t get a good visual on it.”

“Little busy.”

Blue went into a tight spiral that made Lance’s stomach jump into his throat and his vision went weird for a few seconds. When his vision adjusted to the spinning, he started firing his ice beam at the ships Blue wasn’t on a path to barrel through. The sound of the others talking was nothing more than background noise, as he focused all his attention on taking out the enemies all around him. He gripped the controls tighter and put Blue into a sudden nosedive to avoid the huge ship in front of him.

With the immediate danger past, Lance focused some of his attention on the chatter of the other Paladins. “We might be able to disable their weapon, but I don’t see a way to take out the ship.”

“There’s no way we can form Voltron. There are too many enemies. We don’t have the time.”

“If two of the Lions could get up there, we shouldn’t need to form Voltron.”

“Even with Allura’s help, there are too many enemies for three of us to handle.”

“So, we need a distraction.”

Another swarm of enemies were destroyed by Lance’s ice beam, but he didn’t feel relief at his success. Instead, a wave of horror ran through him at the sight of a new fleet of bigger fighter pilot ships heading their way. He quickly turned Blue around in the hopes of grouping back up with the others, only to find some of the bigger ships were already locked on to him. Before he could do anything, a few blasts slammed into Blue’s side sending them toward the huge ship.

“Guys, we have a problem.” A pained grunt left his mouth as something much stronger than a few blasts slammed into Blue. “I don’t think I can-”

A warning noise rang through the cockpit right before he lost all control of Blue and went careening into whatever direction the thing was pushing him. His body jerked wildly and painfully around and got worse when Blue crashed through something. He could hear the sound of Blue’s body sliding against metal and wished he could cover his ears to drown out the awful noise. He thought the sound of his name being screamed filled his helmet, but he was too confused by what was happening to tell.

When Blue finally came to a stop, Lance took a second to shake off the dizziness from spinning so quickly. Once he could see straight again, Lance struggled out of his seat and slid down the now sloped floor of the cockpit. He stumbled his way through Blue, then pulled out his bayard and poked his head out to check for any enemies that might be surrounding him. After doublechecking to make sure there really wasn’t anyone around, he dropped out of Blue and went to check on his Lion.

A large scorch spot with a gash in the middle marred the side of his Lion, sending a wave of worry mixed with anger through Lance. He placed his hand gently against Blue’s side, then readied his weapon and made his way across the large room. Before he left, he glanced back at Blue and wasn’t surprised to see the shield surrounding his Lion. He poked his head out the door and glanced down the hallway for any sign of someone heading his way.

Without any real direction in mind, Lance took off running down to the left and followed the same hallway until it split into several more, then picked a new path. As he continued to make his way through the twisting corridors, he grew increasingly suspicious at the lack of enemies. He would have expected someone to come inspect the new hole in the side of their ship, but every corridor he had run down had been oddly empty. Of course, that didn’t stop him from peeking around every corner to make sure he didn’t go running straight into danger.

While he was running down a long hallway, his comm began to crackle to life and the sound of the others trying to reach him randomly stuttered through. He continued to make his way through the ship as he waited for his comm to clear up, so he could actually hear what the they were trying to say. Just as he poked his head into a room that looked like some sort of large engine room, his comm cleared up enough for him to understand what was being said.

“-anyone see anything yet?”

“No, I can barely see anything!”

“Has Coran locked on to Blue?”

“Unfortunately not. Something must have damaged the Blue Lion enough to prevent me from tracking it.”

“There has to be some way to find him!”

“I’m here.” A chorus of his name echoed through his helmet, causing his head to give a painful throb. “Please, stop shouting. Blue got hurt when we got knocked into their ship. I don’t think she’s getting up anytime soon.”

“You’re still in your Lion, right? Lance?”

“I may have gotten out, but Blue is safe. She put a shield around herself.”

“And what about you?”

“I’m alive.”

A scoff filled his helmet, then Keith’s voice followed. “And you call me the reckless one. Get back to Blue, idiot.”

Before responding, Lance quickly looked around the room for something that might make him useful to the others. A large glowing pillar in the middle of the room sparked his attention enough to ignore everything else and make a beeline for it. He reached his hands out tentatively to touch it and let out a surprised noise when a flare of color ran through the pillar starting at where he touched it.

“It’s a hive mind.”

“What? Lance, did you get back to Blue?”

“No. I’m not going back.”

“What?” Keith’s shout had Lance cringing as he took several steps backwards to get a better look at what was making the pillar work. “Get back to Blue!”

“Can’t do that. I can take them out.”

Allura cut Keith off before he could say anything. “How?”

“I’m going to blow this pillar. I think it’s controlling everything.”

“If it is what you say it is, destroying it would cause a massive explosion. I could hack into it and interfere with their communication. Where are you?”

“No idea and Blue’s down.” The sound of heavy feet hitting the floor in perfect synch suddenly reached his ears and had him scrambling for a higher position for a better shot and to give him more time. “Plus, I’m about to be cornered. Get away from the ship. I’m going to take the shot.”

“Don’t you dare! Find a way back to Blue and we’ll figure out another way.”

“Sorry, babe. Not going to happen this time.”

“Lance!”

After taking a deep breath, Lance fired at the odd-looking crystal at the top of the pillar and watched as several cracks slowly spread through it. The pillar pulsed several different colors in quick succession, then a loud screeching filled the room. Lance quickly put the bottom faceplate of his helmet on to drown out some of the sound, but the sound only intensified to the point he felt like his eardrums were going to pop. For a blissful second all the noise ceased, then the pillar exploded in a rainbow of colors that might have been beautiful if the situation wasn’t so dire.

The force from the blast sent Lance flying off his perch and the flames from the blast engulfed his body. He let out a scream as his suit heated up to a painful degree, then another when he body collided with something hard. His body suddenly jerked and he banged into several more hard objects, before he felt lighter than air. Despite the pain, he twisted around to get a better view than the huge metal beam in front of him and found he’d been sucked out of the ship.

All around him, the fighter pilot ships were floating aimlessly around him and relief washed through him at the sight. He reached out for a piece of debris floating nearby and struggled to pull his body on top of it so he had something to cling to. Now that the adrenaline was gradually wearing off, he could feel every inch of his body screaming in agony. His head pounded fiercely and his ribs felt like they’d been smashed in with a baseball bat. Every breath was a struggle that made pain flare through his chest.

“Lance! Lance!”

“’m here.”

“Good job, Lance!” Allura’s voice sounded pleased and Lance might have felt pride at making her sound that way, if it weren’t for the indescribable pain he felt. “We’ve locked onto the Blue Lion’s signal, but we’re having a hard time finding you. Do you see anything that could help us find you?”

“Planet. So pretty.” A sharp sting in his side made Lance let out a loud hiss and he reached for his side, then he pressed down harder when he felt the sticky sensation of blood against his suit. “Ah, that hurts.”

The sound of someone whispering quickly under their breath filled his helmet, then Keith’s voice reached his ears. “Lance, where are you? Are you somewhere in this debris field? I can’t see you.”

“Yeah, but everything’s kind of going fuzzy.”

“Focus. Tell me what’s around you.”

“Middle of everything.”

“Lance, tell me more! I can’t find you!”

“Sorry, babe.”

“Would you stop saying that!” The anger in Keith’s voice barely concealed the panic he was trying to hide behind it. “Give me something I can work with!”

“Big beam above me.”

“I think I see that. Hold on a second.”

The metal above him shifted to the side, then Red appeared above him and opened her jaws to let him in. A hand reached out to pull him into the Lion and he found himself wrapped in a pair of familiar, strong arms. Keith carefully removed his helmet and bent down so his face was much closer than it had been previously. His hands roamed gently over Lance’s face and neck, then he pulled back some.

“What hurts?”

“Everything.”

“I’m serious, Lance.”

“So am I. Keith…” Lance struggled to pull in his next breath and tried to smile in an attempt to get the worried expression off Keith’s face. “You know I love you, right?”

“Don’t. We’ll get back to the Castle and you’ll go in a healing pod. You’ll be fine.”

“Keith, I don’t think I can. I can hardly breath. Everything hurts.”

He watched as Keith’s eyes drifted to where his hands were pressed against his side, before his hands moved to cover it as well. “Princess, we need help! I’m not sure we have a few ticks. I don’t know. We need to get this armor off.”

Steady hands carefully began to remove his armor and slipped his undersuit down to his waist. He heard Keith suck in a sharp breath and tears appeared to be prickling in the corners of his eyes. When Keith didn’t say anything, he lifted his head up as far as he could manage with causing immense pain. A huge, dark purple bruise painted the top of his chest and the rip in his side was bleeding profusely. The blood was starting to trickle down his side and create a small pool under him.

“I don’t have anything to stop the bleeding.” Keith’s hands pressed firmly against the wound, causing Lance to let out a pained shout and instinctively flinch away. “Stop moving! You’re going to make it worse.”

“Sorry. Didn’t expect it.”

“Just don’t move again. I’m trying to stop it.”

“I know.”

The next breath he took in made immense pain spike through his chest, causing him to splutter and cough as he gasped for air. Dark spots popped into his vision and the muscles in his chest spasmed violently. The arms around him tightened and he was vaguely aware of Keith saying something, but he couldn’t make out the words. Slowly, he managed to suck in some air and the black spots cleared from his vision, but his vision stayed oddly hazy around the edges.

“Keeping breathing. They’re almost here.”

“Remember the first time we kissed? You turned so red. I thought you were going to hit me.”

“I almost did.”

“Glad you didn’t. Would have made things awkward.” He tried to blink away the darkness tunneling his vision, but it only grew worse with every passing moment. “Love you. When you get back to Earth, tell my family I love them. Please? They should know.”

“Don’t talk that way! You’re going to be fine! Hold on a little longer.”

“Dark.”

“Please, just a little longer. Lance, please!”

Even though it made his chest twinge painfully, Lance reached a hand up to shakily hold Keith’s face. “Smile. Such a nice smile.”

“Why would I smile? There’s nothing to smile about.”

“For me.”

“Fine.” Keith gritted his teeth together, then gave a forced smile that would have normally made Lance laugh. “Happy?”

“When I’m with you? Always.”

“Quit talking like you’re dying.”

“There’s nothing you can do. It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not! What are we supposed to do without you? How will we form Voltron? Who will be our sharpshooter? What will I do without you?”

“Everything will be fine. You’ll figure it out. Always do.”

“Did you ever consider I don’t want to? I just want you by my side. We make a great team, remember?” The Red Lion jolted suddenly, causing their bodies to rock from the force. “Finally. We’ll get you in a healing pod.”

An odd numbness ran through his body, causing all the pain to miraculously disappear like it never existed. The overworked muscles of his chest gradually slowed and he felt relief as his body relaxed further into Keith. In the back of his mind, he knew exactly what was happening to him, but it didn’t scare him like he always thought it would. Strangely enough, he felt almost peaceful.

“Keith, lov…” The rest of his words stuck in his throat and he wished he could force them out for Keith one last time.

“Wait! No, no, no, no, no! We’re in the Castle now. You can’t do this to me! Please, don’t leave me. Lance, I love you so much. Please, don’t go. Lance!”

The last thing he heard before the darkness took him was the sound of Keith desperately crying out his name.

**Author's Note:**

> Despite the angst, I hope you all enjoyed! Thanks for reading!


End file.
